


All Wrapped Up

by aslanjades



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: 12 Days of Banana Fish-Mas, Angst, Christmas, Ficlet Collection, Fluff, M/M, One Shot Collection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2018-12-07
Packaged: 2019-09-05 13:16:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16811380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aslanjades/pseuds/aslanjades
Summary: A collection of holiday ficlets and one-shots for the 12 Days of Banana Fish-mas event hosted by me, @/softaslans on twitter.





	1. O Christmas Tree

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ash is tasked with getting a Christmas tree for the apartment, and he makes a rather interesting choice on which to get.

ASH HAD ONE JOB.

Eiji thought he’d given Ash the simplest task possible when he asked him to get a Christmas tree for the apartment. Eiji half-expected Ash to return with a boxed one from Walmart—not that that would be wrong, as the goal was partially to spend time together decorating it. Eiji also just wanted to give Ash a legitimate Christmas experience, since he wasn’t sure when the last time Ash celebrated it in a desirable setting was, nor did he intend to ask. 

What he didn’t expect was for Ash to return to their apartment hauling in the smallest Christmas tree Eiji had ever seen.

“What do you think?” Ash expectantly glanced at Eiji when he set the tree upright, the corners up his lips turned up. As he began to screw it into the stand already sitting in the corner, Eiji couldn’t do anything but stare. 

“It’s . . . small,” he managed. If he were to estimate its height, he’d put it at four and a half feet, and that was at most. When Ash stood again, the tree reached only the middle of his chest, so small that the blonde had to crane his neck to look at it.

“It’s a shrub,” Ash proudly said, a boyish grin on his lips. Eiji slowly stepped closer, taking in the so-called shrub. With all the decorations he bought, the poor thing would probably look like it was drowning.

“Why?”

“Because,” Ash started, closing the space between him and Eiji. Ash put his arm around his counterpart’s waist and leaned down in the slightest to answer, “I wanted to make sure you were tall enough to put the star on.”

“Oh, come on!” 

Eiji’s exasperation made Ash laugh, the sound soft and lovely and making a smile spread on Eiji’s face before he even knew it. Ash smiled right back, pulling Eiji close and pressing a kiss to his forehead. As Ash drew back, he spoke again.

“The shrub won’t decorate itself, will it?”

With that, the smaller boy pulled himself from the embrace and headed to grab the bag full of decorations from across the room, most of it still bearing the tags and stickers from the store and still in the containers they came in. Eiji liked what it symbolized—the novelty, the freshness of it all was exciting. Promising.

This was their first real Christmas together. They were experiencing so many firsts in this early, unsure stage of their relationship, and though it should have been scary, it wasn’t. 

It was the first time, but Eiji knew it wouldn’t be the last, for when he looked at Ash, he felt the everlasting joy the holiday stood for. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with Ash. This Christmas, the next, the next, and the next. When he looked at Ash, jade eyes shining brighter than the lights that would soon adorn the tree ever could, he felt like he couldn’t even measure the amount of time he wanted to be with them.

It felt like what they promised each other before—forever. An immeasurable and unfathomable amount of time. Eiji was in love, and maybe, that was the best gift the season could have brought.


	2. A Gift of Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eiji has trouble finding a suitable gift for Ash, but some sound advice steers him in the right direction.

EIJI SPENT WEEKS CONTEMPLATING WHAT TO GET ASH FOR THE HOLIDAYS.

Ash wasn’t any help, as he claimed he didn’t want anything and it was nothing to stress over. Eiji simply nodded in response to this, but he was sure Ash knew just as well as him that he wouldn’t settle for not giving Ash anything, not when Ash had given him so much for so long. Ash saved him countless times, changed his life, even—the least Eiji could do in return was get him a gift.

If only Ash was easy to shop for.

For countless hours, Eiji scoured the internet when Ash wasn’t looking and went out to shops in search of a worthy gift, but nothing seemed good enough. Not a silver necklace or bracelet with some corny statement about relationships that hardly pertained to their far-from-normal love, and definitely not an expensive bottle of cologne or accessory like webpages advised him. 

It wasn’t until Eiji consulted Shorter, who undoubtedly knew as much about as Ash he did, if not more, that he got the slightest idea of what to give to Ash.

“Aren’t you overthinking it?” Shorter asked, leaning back in the chair of Chang Dai. With his terrible posture and the fact that he was sitting and chatting rather than wiping down the tables around him or asking customers if their meal was okay, he looked more like he was out dining than at work. If Nadia wasn’t in the back, he’d surely be getting scolded. “I mean, Ash is a simple guy. You could give him a piece of cardboard with ‘I love you’ written on it and he’d appreciate it. Just give him something from you, with love.”

Eiji slouched, subconsciously pouting. _Was_ he overthinking it? Had he wasted away all those days figuring out what to buy Ash for the answer to be right in front of him?

Shorter’s words lingered in Eiji’s mind even as he handed Ash the still-warm takeout from the restaurant and sat in their room alone.

_Give him something from you, with love._

Eiji scanned over the room as he sat on the bed and thought, foot tapping on the floor until his eyes landed on the mahogany nightstand and it halted at once. Slowly, he rose and rounded the bed, pulling the drawer open and grabbing the box within it. When he pulled away the lid, tens upon tens of prints of the photos he took of Ash over the past years laid there, most of them unseen by the subject himself.

A smile spread across Eiji’s face as the perfect idea came to him.

A few days later, Eiji handed Ash a gift wrapped in bright red reindeer-printed wrapping paper, watching as Ash’s green eyes flickered to him. “I told you that you didn’t have to get me anything.”

“I wanted to.”

Ash let out a sigh at Eiji’s response, carefully undoing the neatly wrapped gift. Finally, when the tape was unstuck and the paper unfolded and tossed to the side, Ash took the leather book in his hand and turned it to the front, where in Japanese, something was written in metallic silver handwriting.

“What does it say?” he asked, eyes stuck on it.

A warm smile, first small, then wide and content, spread across Eiji’s face. “Garden of Light.”

The blonde merely hummed in response, opening the book. When he saw the first page, his lips parted, eyes agleam as he stared at the photograph of himself. He was . . . smiling.

“I don’t even remember you taking this,” Ash softly said. He ran a finger over the handwriting in the margin. _Cape Cod. This is one of my favorites. I think it’s the first time I saw you truly smile, and I remember being in awe of how youthful and simply beautiful you looked._

He kept turning the pages, reading the handwritten captions, and smiling to himself. The sight may have been one of the most touching things Eiji had ever seen. He would definitely have to repay Shorter somehow for helping him clear his mind and think of such a minimalistic but thoughtful present.

And the moment Ash hit the last photo with, in large print, _For the many more to come_ beside it and yet-to-be-filled pages ahead, he shut the book, turning to Eiji with teary eyes.

“Before I met you,” Ash started, speaking low and steady. “They would all use the camera as a weapon against me. I would freeze every time they took it out, and they knew that.

“You were the first person I knew to use it for good. To capture moments that were actually picturesque, not . . . not traumatizing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many photos where I’m happy, Eiji, and I have you to thank. I love you,” Ash let a tear fall and without hesitating, his counterpart stepped forward and pulled him into his arms.

“For the many more to come,” Ash whispered in the embrace. 

Eiji emotionally chuckled, nodding. “For the many more to come, Aslan.”


	3. The Fire is So Delightful

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> During a power outage, Ash and Eiji rely on a fire and each other to stay warm.

THE POWER HAD GONE OUT.

When the lights flickered off and the low hums of the heater halted all at once, the first thing Ash did was call Eiji’s name. Though he wasn’t proud of it and though he wished it were different, he immediately thought the worst.

When Eiji replied, calling Ash’s name down the hall in response, Ash breathed a sigh of relief. With his negative thoughts slightly subdued, he thought one thing—the apartment was about to get much colder.

New York winters were brutal; when it was cold, it was freezing. When it snowed, the flakes whipped through the air, eventually accumulating on the ground and making commute much more difficult. It didn’t necessarily help that Ash’s tolerance for cold was very, very low. For being one of the toughest guys in New York and going toe-to-toe with death so many times, the fact that a chill made him shiver wildly was embarrassing, to say the least.

With a soft _click_ , a light appeared from down the hall and approached. In the dark, Ash could make out Eiji’s unmistakable frame. His features, however, were a different story, at least until he turned the flashlight upward and his face was illuminated.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Ash replied. 

Eiji’s eyes trailed to Ash’s crossed arms, left bare by his lack of long sleeves, then flickered back to his face. “Should I start a fire?”

“Should you _what_?” 

“The fireplace,” Eiji slowly said, gesturing to the living room. Ash furrowed his eyebrows. Considering he spent so much on this apartment, perhaps he should have known that he had a fireplace. Seriously, how do you miss that?

Ash merely shrugged, which Eiji hardly took as a response. 

“Come on,” Eiji said, a small, teasing smile on his lips. “You’ll be complaining about how cold it is soon. Sensitive American can’t handle a little chill—this I know.”

Ash playfully rolled his eyes in response, waving his companion off. Eiji turned around and walked off with a soft, melodic laugh that made Ash’s stomach twist in turn in ways he didn’t even know were possible. He was suddenly thankful that the lights were off and Eiji had exited the room—the fondness Ash felt definitely made his cheeks go red.

When he sat in front the fireplace, Eiji had just finished striking a match and letting the flame catch on the timber tossed in with the firewood. When the firewood got there and who put it there, Ash didn’t know, but the immediate warmth that radiated from the fire made him too content to worry about asking. Eiji draping a blanket that was previously folded on the couch over Ash’s shoulders only made him warmer, inside and out.

“You know,” Eiji started, leaning his head on Ash’s shoulder. Before the blonde knew it, one of his counterpart’s hands was in his hair, gently playing with the strands of it. “I never thought I would spend the holidays like this.”

“I can say the same.” It was true; Ash never expected to fall in love. Eiji coming along was purely by chance—some miraculous chance that finally aided him after he had been knocked down so many times. The fact that he wouldn’t be spending Christmas alone this year, the fact that he was spending it with _Eiji_ , of all people, was miraculous, indeed. “I’m glad you’re here, Eiji.”

Ash could feel a smile spread across Eiji’s face as it rested on his shoulder, and it made a smile of his own form on his lips. As their hands slowly intertwined, a flower of serenity bloomed in Ash’s stomach. That feeling, that warmth . . . that was exactly what he had always yearned for but was so sure he would never deserve and therefore, never find. But somehow, they made their way to each other, and against all odds, Ash was on his way to true happiness.

His grin didn’t falter, nor did the burning fire, as both he and Eiji fell asleep and, long into the night, the power returned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> psa: please don’t leave your fireplaces on all night that is a FIRE HAZARD.


	4. All the Lights Are Shining

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ash and Eiji take a walk to see the lights around the neighborhood.

ASH WAS NEVER ONE FOR TAKING WALKS, partially because he never felt particularly safe doing so—not that the word safe had even been in his vocabulary for a large portion of his life—and partially because wandering about in the cold didn’t sound too desirable. 

However, when Eiji peeked his head into their bedroom and asked if Ash wanted to go out for a walk with him, Ash nearly tripped over his feet heading to the front door. He even put an arm in the wrong sleeve of his coat because he was _that_ eager to take a stroll. 

Oh, how he had changed.

The frost outside nipped at the exposed skin of Ash’s face, but Eiji next to him seemed to be enough to keep him warm. Their steps on the sidewalk were soft, the occasional sound of leaves being stepped on breaking the silence. Despite the quiet, Ash felt comfortable. Calm.

He’d never really cared about Christmas. There wasn’t much to celebrate before, not until Eiji came around. Now, going out to see the lights adorning the houses didn’t seem so ridiculous. It was another intimate moment with Eiji Ash savored, every step, every frosty breath, and every second that passed by.

“Look at that one,” Eiji said, breaking the silence and pointing to a house with especially elaborate lighting. The multi-colored bulbs were hanging from the trees and from just about every edge of the house—along the doorframe, the windows, and even the gutters.

“Looks tedious as hell,” Ash replied. It _did_ look nice—really nice—but he wasn’t sure he could ever have the patience to do that himself. Not even to give the admiring kids and strolling couples like them something to talk about.

“I’m sure it was, but it paid off. See? They look even better when they flicker.”

As he watched Eiji glare at the lights like a small, awestruck child, Ash bit back a smile. Grinning like he wanted to would leave only make Eiji question what was making him smile that way, and while Eiji’s knitted eyebrows and slight, curious pout were absolutely adorable, nothing could compare to the way the lights reflected in those deep brown eyes.

“You’re staring,” Eiji observed, averting his gaze to Ash, who merely shrugged, his demeanor cool.

“Hard not to. Your eyes are all wide, you know.”

“And _your_ cheeks are pink.” Eiji poked Ash’s cheek with his index finger, which made Ash’s face scrunch together. At this, his companion lightly shook his head, eyes fond.

Hands still intertwined, they continued their walk. Ash’s cheeks remained flushed and Eiji’s eyes were still wide, but now from admiration as much as cold and awe.

“One day, we’ll decorate our house like that together.” He turned to Ash, chuckling as he shook his head. “I can already hear you groaning and complaining about it.”

“Oh, please.” Ash rolled his eyes, but his steps slowed as he realized what Eiji had said. “Our house? Not the apartment?”

Eiji nodded in confirmation. “Not the apartment.”

The unspoken words surfaced in Ash’s mind, a reminder of Eiji’s promise to him. _Forever._ Still, the fact that Eiji truly wanted to build a life with him was mind-boggling. Even the notion of getting to spend hours hanging lights with Eiji, a taste of the sweet, domestic life they would lead together . . .

Ash squeezed Eiji’s hand, a small gesture of love and appreciation. When Eiji squeezed back and turned to him with a smile, face lit in hues of red and blue and green, Ash thought his future, _their_ future, was even brighter than the lights around them.


	5. Hot Chocolate Fills the Air

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ash is reminded of a moment from his youth and consequently sets down his average cup of coffee for something sweeter.

ALL ASH DRANK WAS COFFEE, ALCOHOL, AND THE OCCASIONAL SODA. This was a fact known by Eiji, who went through hell trying to get him to have even a glass of water thrown into the mix. If he were to be honest, it quite pained him to never see Ash trying something other than the usual, rather interesting choices of drinks.

So when Eiji came home one day to see Ash making hot chocolate, he was first pleased, then confused, then slightly concerned.

It was the stuff out of a box, of course, but the sight was still incredible. Ash, standing at the counter with two mugs in front of him, eyes scanning the directions on the box, glasses on the bridge of his nose, and his bottom lip between his teeth. The hot chocolate wasn’t homemade, per se, but it was an attempt—an attempt Eiji would gladly accept—and God, did he look beautiful making it.

“Hey,” Ash smiled as he turned to Eiji for a moment. He held up the box where a stock photo of a perfect mug was printed, turning to Eiji. “Want some?”

Nodding, Eiji set his shoes down and stepped into the kitchen, standing by Ash’s side as he tore open the packets of instant hot cocoa and poured them into the warm milk in the cups. Almost inquisitively, Eiji said, “Well, this is new.”

“I was thinking,” Ash’s voice was suddenly a bit lower, a change most people wouldn’t even notice. Eiji, however, knew Ash too well _not_ to notice the way his voice dropped as if he was getting ready to tell a secret. “about this time when Griff made some for us back in Cape Cod, a long time ago. Marshmallows and whipped cream and all. It was just the two of us, drinking it to keep warm. I probably had about five cups of that hot chocolate that day.”

Ash shook his head, stirring the powder in one of the mugs with a spoon. “I wonder if I’ll still like it as much. My palate has definitely changed.”

Eiji placed a comforting hand on Ash’s shoulder. Though he talked with his tone laced with nostalgia rather than melancholy, Eiji still wanted him to know that he was there, as he would always be. Ash turned to him and nodded in appreciation before getting back to the process of making the hot chocolate, tapping the spoon on the rim of the ceramic cup and tossing it into the sink after. 

With his other hand, he grabbed the can of whipped cream from the supermarket bag and held it out for Eiji. He grinned. “Go on.”

Eiji formed swirls of whipped cream that peeked from the top of the cup, looking rather nice for a so-called klutz. After Ash put red, green, and white sprinkles—yes, Ash Lynx eating _sprinkles_ —and marshmallows on top, he handed one of the mugs to Eiji. 

“Taste it.”

Still bewildered by the entire situation, Eiji took the hot cocoa and brought it up to his lips. As he swallowed it down, the warmth flooded through his body. For store-bought hot cocoa, it wasn’t bad at all.

Ash assessed Eiji then leaned dangerously close, their lips mere inches apart. Hand playing with the hair just above Eiji’s ear, Ash whispered, “Can I?”

As soon as Eiji nodded, the blonde pressed a kiss to his lips, pulling back and swiping his tongue over his own after. 

“Hm . . . tastes exactly like Griff’s did in Cape Cod.” Ash leaned in for another kiss, and this time, Eiji closed the distance between them for longer. It left them both breathless by the time Ash pulled back again. “I don’t know, this seems sweeter. Or maybe it’s just you.”

Eiji chuckled and softly shook his head but still leaned back in again and again and again, their breathy laughs between kisses filling the air. 

And they remained like that, intertwined in each other, hearts warm even as their hot cocoa grew cold.


End file.
